Modelling contingent technology adoption in farming irrigation communities

Of all the uses of water, agriculture is the one that requires the greatest proportion of resources worldwide. Consequently, it is a salient subject for environmental policy-making, and adoption of modern irrigation systems is a key means to improve water use eficiency. In this paper we present an a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Perelló Moragues, Antoni|||0000-0001-7527-3060, Noriega, Pablo|||0000-0003-1317-2541, Poch, Manel|||0000-0002-2593-9298
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:236144
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/236144
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.18564/jasss.4100
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Agent-Based modeling
Innovation diffusion
Policy-making
Irrigation agriculture
Socio-hydrology
Descripción
Sumario:Of all the uses of water, agriculture is the one that requires the greatest proportion of resources worldwide. Consequently, it is a salient subject for environmental policy-making, and adoption of modern irrigation systems is a key means to improve water use eficiency. In this paper we present an agent-based model of the adoption process - known as "modernisation" - of a community constituted by farmer agents. The phenomenon is approached as a contingent innovation adoption: a first stage to reach a collective agreement followed by an individual adoption decision. The model is based on historical data from two Spanish irrigation communities during the period 1975-2010. Results suggest that individual profits and farm extension (as proxy of social influence) are suitable assumptions when modelling the modernisation of communities in regions where agriculture is strongly market-oriented and water is scarce. These encouraging results point towards the interest of more sophisticated socio-cognitive modelling within a more realistic socio-hydrologic context.